Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Square One

I am finding myself back at square one. Not literally waaaaay back to the beginning but....umm..I didn’t weigh in on Friday for a reason. I spent all of last week nursing an injury that kept me from working out. I was pissy and whiny because I got slowed down by said injury and well, that lovely poundage dump that I made two weeks ago....yeah um...I ate it back in my friend’s birthday cake and ice cream...and potato chips...and really, anything else that I could find because I was a depressed pile of yuck. Please note: I am not suffering from depression. I do eat when I am emotional though. 

I have gone through a few stages this past week. At first, I was in the pissed at the world stage. I mean, why did that bakery have to make such a delicious piece of birthday heaven anyway? Buttheads. Then, I went through the whole “pissed off at myself” stage. Where I cried and then ranted and raved like a lunatic, trying to reason with my dogs about why I just needed to be fat For. Ever. They weren’t interested in my sob story. I think they even rolled their eyes at me. That is when I hit the “OMG what have I done” stage. More tears. Countless trips to the scale. More tears. Then...ultimately the “I have to fix this” stage. Which is where I am now.

This stage is where we all need to wind up after a tip off the ole healthy wagon. This is the stage where we reset our goals and stop kicking ourselves in the fanny for the past 7 days of actions. At this stage, we realize that we haven’t done HUGE damage and that we are worth getting it all back together for. For me, this means sticky notes all over the house, cleaning out the fridge, and rewriting my goals. A million times. So here I am. Back on track.

What do you all do when you fall off the wagon? I mean, how do you fix yourself and get back on track. Lately, the getting back on track thing seems to be getting much more difficult. Anyone else notice that? 

Saturday, July 12, 2008

The Power of Thinking

I am reading a book right now that talks about how powerful your mind is. Well, Duh? Right? But what this book is suggesting is that your mind can in fact make things manifest in your life. It is stretching beyond positive thinking. It is actually suggesting that with your mind and essentially your thoughts, you can in fact make yourself ill or healthy.

The point the author brings up are the various illnesses that people have that are psychosomatic. In other words, what your mind thinks, your body makes happen. Think about people that you know that are hypochondriacs. They have every disease and illness on the planet right? Have they really been exposed to all of that stuff? Not likely.

Well, this book has me thinking. If we can create health, why can’t we create weight loss? I mean, the biggest struggles that we have with losing weight are the emotional ties that we all have to food and our self image. Right? This whole concept brings to light several things for me. First of all, that whole “keep your goals in front of you thing.” Keeps the goals in your brain and therefore not easily pushed behind anything else in your life. If you can’t forget them, you won’t. Simple. Secondly, if I see myself as thin, I am going to act like a thin person. I am going to make better choices for myself and ultimately it will make me lose weight. Right? My self image won’t suck. I will feel really good about myself and be happier. Happier people are healthier. Another no brainer.

So, by simply SEEING myself as a healthy person, I will become a healthy person by default. What my mind thinks, my body will make happen..... Negative thoughts about my weight and my health will do nothing but make me miserable and unhealthy. They will impede my progress toward my goals and will essentially keep me from doing what I am trying to do. Positive thoughts = positive results. Easy concept.

Doesn’t this all go back to that story that we read as a child about the little engine that could? Say it with me people “I think I can, I think I can.”

/ whacked out motivational speech

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Is it Burn Out or a Really Big Wall?

No matter what it is...I am fricken tired of it. It’s frustrating and pissing me off to no end. I hit 168. I am thrilled to be there. Really I am but I have been here for three weeks....AGAIN! And it sucks. I am determined to get past this wall though. In my hunting for my own “cure”, I found some fun stuff for you all.

First off, recognize that you have indeed lost some weight. Say you weigh 162 pounds and eat 1,900 calories a day. To lose a pound a week, you’ve got to cut between 500 and 600 calories per day. So you restrict yourself to 1,400 calories, and the weight comes off. But suddenly, after a few weeks, the scale refuses to budge. This is because with the weight loss, your basal metabolic rate has also declined, and where your body used to burn 1,368 calories per day, now it’s using only 1,080. At this weight, there’s less of you to move around, so you burn fewer calories working out. What this means for the newer you is that you are now burning about as many calories as you are taking in. Which results in what? A WALL. A big old ugly wall. 

What you need to do to get past this wall is either take in less calories or find a way to burn more. Right? Here are some tips for when you are frustrated and staring at that ugly wall:

1. Hang in there. Even though you may only be dropping a few ounces at a time, it’s still losing. Look at it this way - .3 ounces per week, ads up to 17 pounds per year. Not a bad thing.
2. Look for places that your calories may be hiding. Low cal salad dressings. Fat free items. Fat free does not mean no calories. It also doesn’t mean that it is good for you. Remember that a half gallon of fat free ice cream is still a half gallon of butter, cream and sugar products.
3. Exercise burns calories as well as builds muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat. Take a good look at your body and see what is really happening when that scale doesn’t budge.
4. Give yourself a jump start with a new routine.  Whether it be in your diet or in your exercise habits. It can kick start your body to move those numbers in a downward motion.
5. Review your goals. Sometimes, it is easy to lose site of what made you hop on this crazy train to begin with. Refresh yourself and recharge your commitment.
6. Make sure that you haven’t set your bar too high. If you are in your late 30’s, trying to get down to the weight you were in high school now, may in fact be a bit much. Look at yourself in the mirror and think about your goals. Also know that it is aok to rethink them. It is possible that you are at a perfect size right now.

No matter what, whether you need to push ourself harder or just find a way to be happy with where you are right now, the important thing is to listen to your body.